Translation ‘marriage’ of two cultures

LAHORE - Speakers at a seminar titled ‘Direct Translations from Russian Literature’ have said translation is a marriage of two different cultures , and considering it an inferior art is misleading and unjust.

The seminar was organised by the Sondhi translation Society of Government College University Lahore as a tribute to the translations of Dr Najam ul Sehr Butt, the first Pakistani to receive Russia’s highest civil award “Medal of Pushkin” this year in November. Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Hassan Amir Shah chaired the seminar which was also addressed by Quddus Mirza, an art critic, and Farrukh Sohail Goindi writer and publisher. They shed light on Dr Najam’s work, including the biography of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In his opening remarks, GCU Debating Society advisor Siddique Awan said that the translation is an amalgamation of divergent cultures , languages and intellectual ethos which creates a new world of meaning and interpretation. He said that these translations didn’t only introduce them to other cultures but also played a vital role further developing Urdu Literature. Talking about Dr Najam’s translation of “The Master o Margarita”, Stockholm University, Sweden Professor Emeritus Dr Ishtiaq Ahmed said that it was a classic which every student of political science must read. Saad-ul-Hassan, a former student of GCU, also presented excerpts from his research thesis “Colonial Bias in the translation of Heer Warish Shah” at the seminar.

Two-day IBCC meeting to start on Dec 13

A two-day annual meeting of the Inter Boards Committee of Chairmen (IBCC) will start at a local hotel, on Wednesday, Dec 13. The meeting is being arranged under the auspices of the Board of Intermediate & Secondary Education (BISE), Lahore.

The chairmen of educational boards, boards of technical education as well as the textbook boards from across the country will participate in this meeting.

The meeting will ponder over different issues including bringing further improvement in the examination system.

Chairman Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (TEVTA) Irfan Qaiser Sheikh has said that the collaboration of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and TEVTA was providing technical education to the youth of Punjab as per Japanese standards.

While talking to a delegation of JICA, led by Mayumi Miyata here on Tuesday at TEVTA Secretariat, Qaiser Sheikh said that the JICA provided Rs 640 million aid for students of Diploma in Associate Engineering (DAE), which eventually raised the standard of technical education. Machinery worth Rs 105 million was also handed over to the Government Technical College Faisalabad. He said that syllabus of technical education was also reviewed by the experts of Japan. During this collaboration, it was focused that the quality and standard of education should remain as per Japanese standards, he said.

He also told the delegates that so far 90 per cent of machinery had been arrived and the remaining will arrive soon. Irfan said that so far 200 instructors and 5,000 students had benefited from the programme. The chairman said, "We want to enhance this collaboration in future as well." Recently, seven officials got training in Japan but now we want more students to go to Japan for further training and studies, he added.

ITU to establish innovation lab

The Information Technology University (ITU) of the Punjab has planned to establish an innovative lab at its state-of-the-art purpose-built main campus, Pakistan's first focused research University being constructed at Lahore.

Dr Umar Saif, founding vice chancellor of ITU, said this while chairing the 7th meeting of the ITU syndicate, here Tuesday.

The meeting was informed that ITU has acquired a `W' category ranking from the National Computing Accreditation Council and an endorsement from the HEC, the highest ranking a university can achieve with regard to academic and research prowess and awarded only to those institutions which meet the requirements as proposed by the governing bodies.

The ITU has planned to increase the present number of 900 students to 1,500 by next three years with the completion of it's main campus being constructed over a period of 18-24 months on 180 acres area with a cost of Rs 5 billion. Presently, the ITU is currently running 10 degree programs with 80 faculty members.

The meeting also discussed the details regarding the first convocation of the graduation of its first batch of students enroled in the undergraduate bachelors programme of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, scheduled on December 17.

The matters pertaining to the institutionalising of Lahore Technology Award and sources for research funding also came under discussion. The Registrar ITU Zaheer Sarwar and the members attended the meeting